Breitbart’s Beef with ABC News

Andrew Breitbart has exploded into foaming rage that ABC News may have unbooked him for its election night coverage.

In Breitbart’s mind, the alleged unbooking raises issues of the highest constitutional magnitude.

“This is not really about ‘me.’ This is about a full-fledged assault on the 1st Amendment and free speech.”

Really? It happens to me about once a month. A rookie Fox News booker will read something I’ve written and call to book me onto a show, say Fox & Friends. I’ll say, “Are you quite sure about this? Have you checked with your boss?”

The booker will confidently say, “I’m sure my boss will agree you’d be a great guest.”

“Well before we lock in, why don’t you check. I’d hate to have a last minute surprise.”

And sure enough, the booker will call back in a little way, surprised and sometimes embarrassed. There’s been a conflict. Something’s come up.

I’m not complaining. Unlike Breitbart, I do not believe that I have the constitutional right to appear on somebody else’s airwaves. But really, the claims of victimhood from the right side of American politics show a remarkable lack of self-knowledge.

I’m quite impressed by what was evidently an overwhelming backlash that prompted ABC’s ‘clarification’ of Breitbart’s role in their election night coverage. And I’m sure your email played no small part. [collegial sarcasm, not evil.]

That backlash illuminates how horribly ill-considered ABC’s invitation was, right from the start. Consequently, it really does look like they lead Breitbart on, and Frum illustrates how easily that happens. The difference is that Frum is an adult with a fully functioning prefrontal cortex. Breitbart, otoh, is developmentally handicapped. For whatever reasons. Given his age I’m inclined to believe it’s a permanent disability.

For a guy who raves about all those elites in big Hollywood and big government, he certainly has a soft spot for big military, as if the military is some special bunch of angels who need protection from all those eveel liberals he fights tooth and nail everyday.

“This is about a full-fledged assault on the 1st Amendment and free speech.”

Uh – Andy, the 1st Amendment only protects you from the GOVERNMENT telling you you can’t say something – there is no protection regarding a private company telling you that they aren’t interested in giving you air time.

In you above example where you are booked on Fox News with a rookie booker, is your appearance on the show blocked by a blog supported by millions of dollars of Soros money, whose sole job is to transcribe right wing shows’ content in order to find some words out of context to smear the show with? Did the ABC bosses in your analogy have anything against Andrew Breitbart before Media Matters organized a protest against his appearance??

Your reasoning is stupid, as is this “Juan Williams”-style lynching of Breitbart’s appearance on ABC. Disgusting.

Breitbart is a right-wing puke with an overinflated and curiously entitled view of who is is and his value as an “analyst”. His public embarrassment must surely be a boo-boo for Andrew that won’t heal quickly. That he’s frothing over this in public shows that Bob Marley was right when he wrote “Pimper’s Paradise”